Declare Homelessness a State of Emergency in Thunder Bay
Declare Homelessness a State of Emergency in Thunder Bay
The Issue
Open Letter to Thunder Bay City Council
Re: Homelessness State of Emergency
In Thunder Bay, the housing situation is dire; this past October, the Lakehead Social Planning Council’s Point in Time Count found that homelessness continues to rise. According to the count, 652 people are currently experiencing homelessness, which is 17% more than the 2024 count of 557 people. In the 2024 count, more than half of participants cited high cost of rent and low income being the biggest barriers to obtaining housing.1
On December 19th, Elevate NWO held a news conference urging Thunder Bay city council to declare homelessness a state of emergency. Even with temporary increases in overflow beds, it is still estimated that 50 people are staying in encampments. A joint response from the City of Thunder Bay and TBDSSAB stated that, “a municipal state of emergency does not, on its own, provide new tools to resolve homelessness. It does not guarantee additional funding from other orders of government, nor does it authorize the city to redirect private industry or override market forces.”
This statement is contradictory given that just days prior, the Ontario Big City Mayors, of which Thunder Bay is a member municipality, called upon the province to enact a state of emergency regarding homelessness. Additionally, given that the first objective of City Council’s Ten Point Human Rights Based Action plan is to; continue advocacy to provincial and federal governments to address homelessness. Conflicting statements like these do nothing but create a lack of trust and take into question our city leadership’s decision making.
Thunder Bay is in a crisis that has grown too large to ignore, one that will continue to get worse with changes to provincial legislation like Doug Ford’s Bill 60. With changes to the Residential Tenancy Act it is now quicker to evict people from their homes, harder for renters to challenge the decision, and easier for ‘bad faith’ evictions via N12 personal use evictions. These changes have been brought forth to allegedly make conditions more favorable for builders in Ontario to address the housing crisis.
In a smaller municipality such as Thunder Bay, on average a two bedroom apartment costs $2,000 a month2. We cannot rely on a market that led us into this housing crisis to get us out of it, by pumping out more market price builds. If we want to solve our housing crisis we can’t just think short-term, we need to also focus on sustainable and affordable housing options. Native People of Thunder Bay Development Corporation has three shovel ready projects, all of which have been denied by the city3. It is frustrating to see that organizations with innovative ideas and solutions continue to fall on deaf ears.
At the very least, declaring a state of emergency will show that our city leadership is committed to the advocacy laid out in their ten point plan. The homelessness crisis will not be solved overnight, or with temporary solutions, like shelter villages and overflow beds. In order to solve our homelessness crisis, we need city leadership to commit to both short and long term action. We need our leadership to commit to working with and advocating on our behalf to other levels of government. As city leadership fights to come up with the best way to centralize and hide our homelessness ‘issue’, more people will continue to die in the cold.
The City of Thunder Bay’s Ten Point Plan has been in place for nearly three years now; it seems that much of that time has been taken up by squabbling over a 'favorable' shelter village site. We need transparency, accountability and measurable action.
1 Point in time count. Lakehead Social Planning Council. (October 9th 2025). https://www.lspc.ca/what-we-do/housing-and-homelessness/point-in-time-count/
2 Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. (2025, December 2). Asking rent prices, by rental unit type and number of bedrooms, experimental estimates. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=4610009201&utm_source=tbnewswatch.com&utm_campaign=tbnewswatch.com%3A+outbound&utm_medium=referral
403
The Issue
Open Letter to Thunder Bay City Council
Re: Homelessness State of Emergency
In Thunder Bay, the housing situation is dire; this past October, the Lakehead Social Planning Council’s Point in Time Count found that homelessness continues to rise. According to the count, 652 people are currently experiencing homelessness, which is 17% more than the 2024 count of 557 people. In the 2024 count, more than half of participants cited high cost of rent and low income being the biggest barriers to obtaining housing.1
On December 19th, Elevate NWO held a news conference urging Thunder Bay city council to declare homelessness a state of emergency. Even with temporary increases in overflow beds, it is still estimated that 50 people are staying in encampments. A joint response from the City of Thunder Bay and TBDSSAB stated that, “a municipal state of emergency does not, on its own, provide new tools to resolve homelessness. It does not guarantee additional funding from other orders of government, nor does it authorize the city to redirect private industry or override market forces.”
This statement is contradictory given that just days prior, the Ontario Big City Mayors, of which Thunder Bay is a member municipality, called upon the province to enact a state of emergency regarding homelessness. Additionally, given that the first objective of City Council’s Ten Point Human Rights Based Action plan is to; continue advocacy to provincial and federal governments to address homelessness. Conflicting statements like these do nothing but create a lack of trust and take into question our city leadership’s decision making.
Thunder Bay is in a crisis that has grown too large to ignore, one that will continue to get worse with changes to provincial legislation like Doug Ford’s Bill 60. With changes to the Residential Tenancy Act it is now quicker to evict people from their homes, harder for renters to challenge the decision, and easier for ‘bad faith’ evictions via N12 personal use evictions. These changes have been brought forth to allegedly make conditions more favorable for builders in Ontario to address the housing crisis.
In a smaller municipality such as Thunder Bay, on average a two bedroom apartment costs $2,000 a month2. We cannot rely on a market that led us into this housing crisis to get us out of it, by pumping out more market price builds. If we want to solve our housing crisis we can’t just think short-term, we need to also focus on sustainable and affordable housing options. Native People of Thunder Bay Development Corporation has three shovel ready projects, all of which have been denied by the city3. It is frustrating to see that organizations with innovative ideas and solutions continue to fall on deaf ears.
At the very least, declaring a state of emergency will show that our city leadership is committed to the advocacy laid out in their ten point plan. The homelessness crisis will not be solved overnight, or with temporary solutions, like shelter villages and overflow beds. In order to solve our homelessness crisis, we need city leadership to commit to both short and long term action. We need our leadership to commit to working with and advocating on our behalf to other levels of government. As city leadership fights to come up with the best way to centralize and hide our homelessness ‘issue’, more people will continue to die in the cold.
The City of Thunder Bay’s Ten Point Plan has been in place for nearly three years now; it seems that much of that time has been taken up by squabbling over a 'favorable' shelter village site. We need transparency, accountability and measurable action.
1 Point in time count. Lakehead Social Planning Council. (October 9th 2025). https://www.lspc.ca/what-we-do/housing-and-homelessness/point-in-time-count/
2 Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. (2025, December 2). Asking rent prices, by rental unit type and number of bedrooms, experimental estimates. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=4610009201&utm_source=tbnewswatch.com&utm_campaign=tbnewswatch.com%3A+outbound&utm_medium=referral
403
The Decision Makers
Supporter Voices
Petition created on January 24, 2026